The invention relates to physical therapeutical treatment systems, in particular to those systems for use by children, and specifically children suffering from diseases, disorders, or afflictions such as, but not limited to, cerebral palsy.
A need has existed for a treatment system for children that would induce voluntary participation by the patient, on a continuing basis, to supplement and complement the treatment provided under direction of an attendant physical therapist or other medically trained personnel.
The need has also existed for a treatment system for children that they would voluntarily use, as a patient and on a continuing basis, that could be adjusted for magnitude of the force required to extend the elastic support; and also, could be adjusted for the extent to which effort had to be exerted to make contact to grasp the elements.
In order to accomplish these objectives, the invented system is equipped with attractive toy-like elements that catch the eye of the child patient and induce participation.
In a like manner for accomplishing the objectives, the invented system is equipped with varying magnitudes of tension elastic to provide several degrees of exercise effort.
Similarly, provisions are included for adjusting and varying the heights of both the main body element of the device and the toy-like elements to induce increased stretching exercising by the patient. This, additionally, requires coordinated efforts by the child patient, an important element in the therapeutical process.
The variation in heights can also be accomplished in a manner that modifies the tension magnitude, thus providing a variety of means for attaining the objectives of both force and stretch type exercise.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide an improved physical therapeutical treatment system for children.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved physical therapeutical treatment system with attractive toy-like elements to induce participation of child patients.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved physical therapeutical system which can be adjusted to provide a range of magnitudes of force to be exerted by child patients.
It is still further an object of the invention to provide an improved physical therapeutical system which can be adjusted to provide a range of heights of the apparatus in order to induce coordinated effort by child patients to reach the exercising units of the system.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparent in light of the following description of the following description of the preferred embodiments.